After hours of delays and legal hand wringing, the United States Government conducted its first execution in 17 years this morning at the federal death row unit in Terre Haute.  Daniel Lewis Lee became the first inmate executed at the federal level since 2003.

At 2:00 am Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the execution to proceed.

Lee continued to profess his innocence up until his final breath.

“You’re killing an innocent man, I’m not perfect, but I’m not a murderer.”  Those were some of his final words, moments before a lethal dose of chemicals was administered into his body through three tubes that extended into the small execution chamber from behind a wall.

The execution began at 7:47 AM Tuesday.  Lee took several breaths and was officially pronounced dead at 8:06 AM.

In 1999, Lee and an accomplice were convicted of robbing and killing William and Nancy Mueller, both gun sales people, as well as murdering the couple’s 8-year-old daughter.

They stole $80,000 dollars in guns, ammunition and cash from the victims and drowned them in an Illinois bayou.

Two more men are scheduled to die in the next three days – Wesley Ira Purkey on Wednesday and Dustin Lee Honken on Friday.